Oprah Winfrey apologizes for her 'major' role in 'diet culture': 'I own what I've done'

Oprah Winfrey addressed the role she played in perpetuating diet culture over the years in a recent livestream.

Winfrey spoke to the in-person and virtual audience at the WeightWatchers “Making The Shift: A New Way to Think About Weight” livestream on Thursday, May 9 about reaching a “pivotal moment in the way we talk about and the way we think about our bodies.”

At the start of the livestream, Winfrey took a moment to speak about her own role in “diet culture” over the years.

“I want to acknowledge that I have been a steadfast participant in this diet culture through my platforms, through the magazine, through the talk show for 25 years,” Winfrey said.

She continued, adding, “I’ve been a major contributor to it. I cannot tell you how many weight loss shows and makeovers I have done and they have been a staple since I’ve been working in television.”

Winfrey addressed one specific moment from “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1988 when she rolled a wagon of fat onto the stage, calling it one of her “biggest regrets.”

“It sent a message that starving yourself with a liquid diet and set a standard for people watching that I, nor anybody else, could uphold,” she explained. “The very next day, I began to gain the weight back. Maya Angelou always said ‘When you know better, you do better,’ so these conversations for me are an effort to do better.”

She added, “I own what I’ve done, and now I want to do better.”

After serving as a board member for WW, formerly known as WeightWatchers, since 2015, she announced in February that she would be leaving the board of directors and would not stand for re-election at the next shareholder meeting in May.

Over the decades, Winfrey has remained candid about her health, including her experience with weight loss.

Five months after announcing that she joined the WeightWatchers board, Winfrey showed off her 26-pound weight loss in the April 2016 issue of O, sharing the cover with nine other woman to celebrate their “best body.”

In the issue, Winfrey said, “It was my idea to share the cover with other women who are on the same journey that I am.”

“My own struggles with the scale are well known,” she added. “I’ve never believed in hiding them. What I do believe in: strength in numbers.”

Winfrey is among the list of celebrities taking weight loss drugs, including Ozempic and Mounjaro.

In December 2023, Winfrey revealed in an interview with People that she had started taking a weight loss drug, though she didn’t confirm which medication.

At the time, she said she used it “as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing.”

“The fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for,” she explained to the outlet.

Winfrey added, “I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com